The remote work culture has been with us for the past several years. But with the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, most companies were forced to embrace this culture and allow their employees to work from home.
Although the idea of working remotely didn’t receive a warm welcome from traditional office-goers in the beginning, many companies are now considering accepting it because of the advantages that come with it. Not only does it offer a better work-life balance to employees, but it helps boost their productivity as well.
And not to forget the amount of money you can save from not having to pay the office rent, electricity bills, and other such additional expenses. But building a thriving remote work culture can be daunting.
However, if you’re looking for ways to build one for your business, here are a few tips that can help you do it. Let’s check out what they are.
1. Communicate Your Company Mission and Values
The work culture for every business is built around the company’s mission and values. So sharing your mission and values with your employees becomes extremely important to create a positive remote work culture.
By doing that, you let your employees see a positive aspect of their daily activities. It boosts their morale and helps them develop a long-term commitment to the company’s work culture. By knowing your company mission, they know what exactly is expected from them.
It helps them clearly understand what to do in times of confusion. A good way to share your mission and values with your team is to include them in the company handbook. Make it compulsory for your employees to read it as part of their onboarding process.
2. Host Regular Virtual Meetings
When you’re managing a remote team, you don’t often get to see your teammates in person. But it’s important to communicate with your team regularly for better collaboration and execution of your tasks.
Unlike a regular office job, not meeting them regularly also makes it difficult for you to build a strong connection with your team members. Besides, communicating through emails and texts makes the conversations less effective as compared to a face-to-face conversation. But you can easily reduce these problems by hosting regular virtual meetings with your team members. This can be a one-on-one meeting or a team meeting, depending on your convenience and business needs.
This gives you a scope to interact with your team directly and have more meaningful and productive discussions about your projects. It’s also a great way to build stronger connections, ask for suggestions, offer solutions and discuss any problems that might show up.
So set aside some time for these meetings every week. Pick a day and time of the week when you host these meetings and ask your team to join in.
3. Invest in Technology
The remote work culture has enabled people to work from anywhere in the world across time zones. Thanks to technology for making the smooth functioning of businesses possible even without you having to walk into a physical office every day.
To ensure that it continues to happen, it’s important for you to invest in technology regularly. This will help your employees connect personally and collaborate professionally more efficiently. By making collaborations easier, you can boost employee engagement and improve their commitment to their work.
4. Let Your Team Know That They are Valued
When you have a remote team, most of your team members are working alone. This might, at times, make them feel lonely. And it can be a major reason for them to feel demotivated. So make sure to always let your employees know that they are valued. This will help them stay motivated and will boost their morale.
You can do that by introducing employee appreciation programs where team members can send out cheer-to-peer for their teammates in Slack. It’s a great way to celebrate their success, hard work, and efforts. It also makes them feel more valued and boosts their confidence at the same time.
Another way to make them know that they are valued is by offering them good compensation and perks for their contribution to the company. This will not only create a base for employee satisfaction but will also motivate them to perform better.
Creating a remote company culture isn’t easy. But for many companies, it has become a priority. The key to establishing a thriving remote company culture is to be able to establish trust and remove the barriers of distance between team members. The above tips can help you do that. So start working on them and get ready to create a remote work culture that will continue to thrive.
